VIDEO: Doctor-Turned-Lawmaker Sen. John Barrasso Fights Obamacare

Sen. John Barrasso earned the nickname “Wyoming’s Doctor” after working for 24 years as an orthopedic surgeon in Casper. Today he represents the state in the U.S. Senate and is one of the leading critics of Obamacare.

More than two decades with patients gave Barrasso a firsthand glimpse of government’s involvement in medicine — and that was before President Obama signed his unpopular health care law in 2009. Last week Barrasso visited Heritage to share his concerns about the doctor-patient relationship and other side effects of Obamacare.

“It seems every new regulation takes away from the time you get to spend with a patient because you’re filling out paperwork and forms,” Barrasso said in an interview with Heritage. “I don’t want anybody between a doctor and a patient — not an insurance company bureaucrat or a Washington bureaucrat.”

Barrasso made his opposition to Obamacare known long before the measure was signed into law. As the bill was being debated on Capitol Hill, Barrasso teamed with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), also a medical doctor, for the Senate Doctors Show. The biweekly broadcast became a forum to discuss health policy.

Two years later, as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments about the law beginning today, Barrasso hopes the justices will strike down Obamacare.

“The best outcome,” Barrasso said, “is that the court says the individual mandate — a mandate you must buy a government-approved product — is unconstitutional, and that they would also rule that because that part is unconstitutional, the entire law falls.”

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thank you, Senator Barasso. Doctor – patient is what we need. Insurance can filter in as warranted by the patient. Not the government.

the President stated (paraphrasing) "everyone has a right to basic health care!" who alive today doesn't know that? It's our duty as life to provide that basic health care to our individual livelihoods. With the help of the free market, PEOPLE take care of ourselves! Because people control their own behavior, the expense of their health is their own whatever way they can be responsible to pay. Personal resources through family, friends, charities, people within cultures of livelihoods. wherever a person is at, there are always better solutions then government control.

People with chronic illness may warrant insurance but should also know the retail costs of all medications and procedures.

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